Who we are: Our History and Our Vision

Living Pictures Productions is a registered charity formed in 1999 by Elen and Robert Bowman. Both have worked extensively as actors and both have undergone Russian directing training in the 1990s.

The Company was formed to find new and engaging ways to train for and perform theatre art and to encourage and develop new work and new European translations.

Living Pictures have "an intensity that impressively resurrects the polemical voice of the playwright".

Time Out

"This is exceptional work – precise, committed and terribly moving".

Katie Mitchell, Associate Director National Theatre

The company title comes from the presupposition that we think in pictures and not in words. If I say the word ‘Apple’, you will most probably see a picture and not a word. This is a natural thinking process and in every day life we tell our stories using words to convey the pictures of our experiences. Word and picture are connected.

One of the principle elements that can be missing from acting is our association with the character. Often - due to time constraints and other pressures - we can tend to rely on words, tonality and other technical skills to convey the story. By acting with pictures and other sensory modalities, actors get an opportunity to experience the world of the character in their imagination which affects not only the quality of their thoughts but also the quality of their voice and physicality. By creating an inner world of pictures inspired directly by the playwrights words and deepening this process in rehearsals day by day actors can become rooted in the world of the story.

Other areas we incorporate in our work include; Stanislavski and the Russian Theatre Tradition, Laban, Michael Chekhov, Yoga, Mike Alfreds and NLP.

Our overall aim is to continue to learn and bring new ideas and practice to theatre art. To foster a spirit of life long learning and enable individuals to grow, be inpsired and produce their very best work.